When beloved cardiac surgeon Levi Watkins Jr. died in April of complications from a stroke, the entire Johns Hopkins community mourned. The 70-year-old Watkins had made a name for himself in many ways: as a pioneering surgeon who in 1980 first implanted an automatic defibrillator in a human heart; as a civil rights activist who took part in the Montgomery bus boycotts in the 1950s; and as the first African-American chief resident in cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins, who later became an academic leader and mentor, driving recruitment of minority students.

“I met him as a medical student applying for surgical training and later interviewed with him as a candidate for leadership positions in the late 2000s,” recalls Robert Higgins, director of surgery at Johns Hopkins. “At each one of those interactions, he was supportive and encouraging as a mentor and as a leader in the field, but he was also an insightful visionary. His legacy in professional inclusion was really what people remember him for.”

With that in mind, faculty members in the Department of Surgery rallied to start a memorial lectureship in Watkins’ name, with the goal of raising $160,000 to create an endowment that will support an annual lecture featuring a renowned speaker who upholds the inclusion, excellence and mentorship values Watkins held dear, says Kathleen Hertkorn, director of development for the department.

The inaugural speaker of the Levi Watkins Jr., M.D., Endowed Memorial Lectureship was Edward Cornwell, a former trauma chief at Johns Hopkins and professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine, who gave a Grand Rounds talk on Oct. 22 to the Johns Hopkins community.

In the same vein as Watkins, Cornwell is a leader in trauma/critical care medicine, and he also mentors underrepresented minority community members and has a strong community service profile, advocating for violence prevention. “We thought it was appropriate to recognize Levi and invite Eddie as a member of the family to be the inaugural lecturer,” says Higgins.

“Levi really blazed a trail for young African-American surgeons like me, and yet ironically, he never lived to see me assume the role as the Halsted chair, something I think he, through his life’s work, was responsible for in many ways.”